Adoption in Wales

Researchers at Cardiff have received funding for two new research projects about children adopted from public care and the support needs of their new families. The first project is commissioned by the Welsh Government which is currently reforming adoption in an attempt to avoid children having lengthy waits for families and to ensure that adoptive families have the support they need. A National Adoption Service is being established and will be operational from April 2014. The aim of the National Adoption Service is to achieve excellence for adoption through securing high quality, family placements for looked after children for whom adoption is in their best interests. It will enhance the efficiency and quality of the assessment process; provide equity in the arrangements for adoption and encourage the pooling of prospective adopters. To inform the work of the new service, Dr Heather Ottaway and Dr Sally Holland from the School of Social Sciences will map current post-adoption support services to establish whether all adoptive families in Wales have access to similar levels of services across the nation. They will also explore the needs and wishes of adoptive families to highlight which services they value most and any gaps in support.